Capital One quadrupling size of its innovation space The Garage

Capital One’s Financial Services division in Plano is expanding its innovation center, The Garage, to four times its original size.

The company opened The Garage in August 2014 at 9,000 square feet. Once the two-phase expansion is complete in summer, The Garage will occupy 36,000 square feet of space.

“The operating model for The Garage includes cross-functional teams driving new innovation all the way from rapid prototyping to in-market launch,” said Chandra Dhandapani, Financial Services divisional CIO and senior vice president of technology, adding that Capital One plans to include more teams. “In addition to the teams housed full time in The Garage, we have other teams who rotate in and out of The Garage based on selective acceleration needs.

"Having the expanded space will allow for more teams to utilize the space and to take what they’ve learned about this collaborative way of working to their workspace when they rotate out of The Garage.”
The new space also will allow Capital One more event space to host internal hackathons and external meet-ups.

The Garage was the idea of Dhandapani and Sanjiv Yajnik, president of the division. It currently serves product managers, software engineers, designers and other subject experts that are dedicated to creating innovative solutions for lending. When it was first built, it could accommodate 70 associates, featured one executive conference room, three small huddle spaces and one large meeting space.

After the expansion is completed, it will seat 200 associates, offer nine larger collaboration rooms and various small huddle rooms.

“The Garage expansion is an investment we’re making to nurture our innovative and collaborative work environment,” Dhandapani said, adding that technology has always been a central part of Capital One’s thinking. “Few spaces are as ripe for technology-led disruption as how people relate to their money.”
Capital One's Financial Services division in Plano focuses on its auto finance and home loans businesses. In November, the division launched Capital One Smart Home Loans, which provides customers with a digital home loan experience. The product was a development of The Garage. (1/25/2016)